For realness’ sake, “Joker” has to contain a supervillain not caricatured from the floppy evil on the pages of a comic book. Thankfully, Joaquin Phoenix steps into the clown’s shoes — an enormous pair to fit since the godlike supershow of Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The laughs morph into shock as Phoenix gives the acting showcase of his life. His Joker is the closest to being a real world villain: such humanity that bleeds with sadistic sympathy. Beginning as a lowly loner in a furiously inept society named Gotham, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) wrestles with his luck in the comedy industry and his deteriorating mentality as he laggardly descends (or ascends) into the iconic clown. Phoenix pushes his boundaries, opening his bag of tricks to complete his harrowing metamorphosis. The actor crunches his bones, wails like a caged animal, then vaporizes his numbing brain to slimy, maddening tears, swaying his limbs upon a melancholy waltz. Even ramming his head on fences and glass walls ala "The Master" for emphasis. At this point, Phoenix delivers a triumphant portrayal that is both beautiful and bothersome. On the flipside, Brett Cullen is the frugal Thomas Wayne whose intentions to run for mayor is angelic, although his motivations are crooked. Gaining a political throne is more of a super weapon to protect his family, specifically his young son Bruce Wayne (Dante Pereira-Olson). So he would don the cape and cowl to prowl Gotham as Batman, but the boy’s eyes are forever tainted by the cult of twisted personality. Instead of fighting for the greater good, he might grow avenging his fractured spirit. A realist approach to superhero cinema. “Joker” may be eponymously dedicated to Batman’s archnemesis. Yet the true supervillain of the movie is Gotham City, to boot, society in its entirety. Stirring sociological tropes such as mental illness stigma plus underappreciated social workers are the recipe to concocting the perfect villain. Society has tenderized Fleck and manufactured him into their own personification — an anti-hero born from the city’s self-destructive excesses. A breathing emblem of failure, chaos, with smithereens of sympathetic madness Joker is. More so, director Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the movie with Scott Silver, has splendidly produced an intoxicating drama cloaked as a comic book movie. Because a comics villain needs a costume, “Joker” dresses itself as an old-school comedy with bits from Charlie Chaplin to mask its tragedy. Phillips' frames, assembled with cinematographer Lawrence Sher, are sinister. Aptly laced with shadowy overtones, “Joker” evokes the grim sadness of the movie. But the visuals are a beautiful shipwreck, its debris cascading into tragic art that sculpts Joker as an inherently good menace. He just tells jokes to a crowd that does not recognize the punchline until they have been hit in the face then resorts to violence. Phillips’ film panels are drawn from legendary pieces, most notably “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy;” the two having explored the psychological warfare of a character seeking to crack society before they are splintered by merely trying. However, Fleck collapses because Gotham casts him aside while he is seeing a lady psycho-therapist who is a person of color and a low-life like him. The pairing reflects the topsy-turvy social hierarchy where nobody can ever rise above the level they are exposed to. When Joker completes his vile transformation, he arrives as the devil with a sense of humor in the city’s late night television show “Live with Murray Franklin.” The host, Murray Franklin, is the greatest influence to Fleck since he idolizes him. Franklin (the seriously hypnotic Robert De Niro) might have shot his jokes excessively like a sharp arrow to Fleck’s heart. Flaked in a devilish red suit and a lucid clown makeup topped with the classic green-dyed hair, Fleck is now Joker whose uncontrollable chuckles are screams for help inside a society where they could only hear his manic giggles through gunshots and shattering windows. “Joker” is far from being a rewatchable treat. The film is stressful in its every second. Ergo, the morbid gags elicit tearful hilarity. It gets funnier as “Joker” digs into the depths of the brain. Cue audience laughs. Director: Todd Phillips Trailer © YouTube.com; Warner Bros. Pictures
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